Bought a Golf MkIV, a few niggles

donegaldude

I bought myself an 01 Golf Tdi and I have a few niggles to sort out.

1. interior lights don't work. The door lights and the buzzer that goes when you leave the lights on work fine. Is it just a fuze that is goosed or something else. When I switch the interior lights on the door open signal comes up on the dash. It's not the end of the world that they don't work but I would like to get sorted if anyway handy to do.

2. Drivers footwell is a bit damp, I cleaned out the drain in the door hinge and changed the pollen filter and it seems to be drying up. I've read that there is a seal on the door that could be gone. The car has a sunroof, does it drain to the aforementioned pipe in the door hinge?

Any help appreciated, I'd like to DIY things before going to a mechanic if at all possible.

Cheers

Interslice

donegaldude wrote: »

I bought myself an 01 Golf Tdi and I have a few niggles to sort out.

1. interior lights don't work. The door lights and the buzzer that goes when you leave the lights on work fine. Is it just a fuze that is goosed or something else. When I switch the interior lights on the door open signal comes up on the dash. It's not the end of the world that they don't work but I would like to get sorted if anyway handy to do.

2. Drivers footwell is a bit damp, I cleaned out the drain in the door hinge and changed the pollen filter and it seems to be drying up. I've read that there is a seal on the door that could be gone. The car has a sunroof, does it drain to the aforementioned pipe in the door hinge?

Any help appreciated, I'd like to DIY things before going to a mechanic if at all possible.

Cheers

For the interior lights check the bulbs haven't blown and the connector at the back of the units for corrosion and all the fuses. You'll need a multimeter after that to source the problem.

For the water just keep looking. Make sure all the drain are good first.
Have a read of this for the sunroof.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?1909676-Have-a-water-leak-MKIV-sunroof-drain-locations

GTE

donegaldude wrote: »

I bought myself an 01 Golf Tdi and I have a few niggles to sort out.

1. interior lights don't work. The door lights and the buzzer that goes when you leave the lights on work fine. Is it just a fuze that is goosed or something else. When I switch the interior lights on the door open signal comes up on the dash. It's not the end of the world that they don't work but I would like to get sorted if anyway handy to do.

2. Drivers footwell is a bit damp, I cleaned out the drain in the door hinge and changed the pollen filter and it seems to be drying up. I've read that there is a seal on the door that could be gone. The car has a sunroof, does it drain to the aforementioned pipe in the door hinge?

Any help appreciated, I'd like to DIY things before going to a mechanic if at all possible.

Cheers

1. Are you saying the interior lights do not switch on when the door opens or that the switch does nothing when you flick it?

If not, on my 00 Golf, I decided to install my own light switch. I had some parts from Leaving Cert Technology in the shed so it was a mini project. You could get a replacement if that was the problem. I remember feeling about the old switch and there were bits of metal lose which resulted in blown fuses.

If the lights work by the switch but not when the door opens, it sounds like the switch which is inside the door latch is broken. That is a common problem as they get dirty and it is a problem on my car. Also means that the headlights are on buzzer doesn't go off :mad:

That is another replacement jobby to fix.

2. I have a sunroof, I chopped the end of the drains at the front door hinges (nipples apparently) and then poured water down the tops of the drains in the sunroof and let that flush the pipe out but I only did that out of preventative maintenance.

There are holes under the doors which are drains for water which gets in via the window glass. They can get clogged and over flow into the footwell. You fix that with a toothpick. I had no problem with that, again preventative. The amount of gunk that came out was amazing.

What I did have a problem with was the seal between the door and the inner door skin. They perish eventually so I fixed it by taking the bottom half of the skin off, stripping the old seal and gunk off with a knife and then using silicone sealant to create a new seal.

All of the above are DIY jobs. As you may have a problem with the door latch switch, it could be a good idea to take the inner door skins off entirely and doing a proper job on them as swapping out a latch would require taking the inner skins off anyway but the light problems could be a couple of things.

donegaldude

Thanks for that, will get at the drains this evening. Will borrow a multimeter from work and do some chasing this evening too

donegaldude

bbk wrote: »

1. Are you saying the interior lights do not switch on when the door opens or that the switch does nothing when you flick it?

If not, on my 00 Golf, I decided to install my own light switch. I had some parts from Leaving Cert Technology in the shed so it was a mini project. You could get a replacement if that was the problem. I remember feeling about the old switch and there were bits of metal lose which resulted in blown fuses.

They don't come on when the door opens or when I press the switch, I checked the fuse and I think it is goosed, will replace it this evening and hope that sorts it. It's going for a service tomorrow so if I can't sort it tonight will ask my mechanic to throw a look at it tomorrow.

GTE

donegaldude wrote: »

They don't come on when the door opens or when I press the switch, I checked the fuse and I think it is goosed, will replace it this evening and hope that sorts it. It's going for a service tomorrow so if I can't sort it tonight will ask my mechanic to throw a look at it tomorrow.

I do remember the fuse being tripped by the contacts in the roof switch flapping about and causing shorts, so that is at least the first place that should be checked. After that, I don't know what could obviously cause a fuse to blow.

donegaldude

So I changed the fuze and no different. However I plugged my phone charger in today and gave the car a good Hoover, remarkably sine I plugged the charger in the interior lights are working again. So it's the charger or a contact on the doors which stops them, weird!

GTE

donegaldude wrote: »

So I changed the fuze and no different. However I plugged my phone charger in today and gave the car a good Hoover, remarkably sine I plugged the charger in the interior lights are working again. So it's the charger or a contact on the doors which stops them, weird!

Ah haaa!

I found that if the cigarette charger was unplugged, some stuff would not work. It has been so long, I can not remember what but it confused the hell out of me.

It kept happening when I took a tightly fitting sat nav charger out which would pull the cigarette lighter out of its fitting slightly. It would seem that connection is important.

It is amazing what slips out of your head over the years. That said, that doesn't mean that the other sources of interior lighting issues are discounted.

donegaldude

I think I have it solved in that something is away in the door lock mechanism, if I close doors with a hardy bang they start working again, close them softly and they don't work. to be honest I can manage without them for now but I think changing the electronic bits of the door will sort it.

Footwell is dry as a bone now so at least that's sorted.